On 08/10/2005 12:01 PM, Bruce Markey wrote:
Dylan Keon wrote:
My goal is to have the two PVR-250s record analog cable (already
working), and the PVR-150 record OTA broadcast signals via my rooftop
antenna since the reception of local channels stinks on our analog cable.
I set up a new video source called "antenna" and configured a new
"local broadcast" channel listing for my area at zap2it. However,
it's not clear to me how this will get handled in the EPG. For
example, channel 7 on analog cable is Discovery, while channel 7 on
broadcast is PBS.
The one marked "7 DSCP" and shows MythBusters is Discovery, the one
that says "7 PBS" and has Nova is PBS. Oddly, this is the second
time this has come up recently. If you schedule MythBusters, it won't
bust myth and record Nova by mistake =).
Ok, good :-)
After running mythfilldatabase these both appear in the EPG, but where
channels are the same (i.e., channel 9 is the same station on both
cable and OTA), there is only one entry in the EPG.
Correct. By design. If the channel number and callsign are the same,
it does not show both. I have NBC on 3 for analog and on 3 and 123
digital (chanids 1003, 2003 and 2123 respectively). The EPG shows
one line for NBC on 3 rather than two identical lines next to each
other but does have another line for 123. If another input had
station "KRAP" on 3 (3003), the EPG would include both channel
3 stations.
Nice callsign ;-) I just took a peek via mythweb and I can see that my
EPG is also arranged as you described.
I want local channels to be recorded on the PVR-150 by default, using
the local broadcast channel listing unless there is a conflict, in
which case they would get recorded on one of the PVR-250s. Cable-only
channels would always get recorded on the PVR-250s. Is all of this
(or any of this) possible?
This has all been solved long ago. You actually have some choices...
I could just delete the duplicate broadcast channels from the cable
lineup, but then that would eliminate the possibility of using the
cable as a backup to resolve conflicts.
Myth treats two channels with the same callsign as being the same
station and are interchangeable. Which channel is used for a show
on that station is deterministic. If all else is equal, by default
the scheduler will choose the lowest numbered input that has that
station available.
Ahhh, this is good to know.
There is also an option on the mythtv-setup Input connections page
for "Input preference". If you set this one higher than the others,
that tells the scheduler that it is better to record from this input
whenever possible rather than to record from the other inputs.
Great, I think this is what I need!
There is a subtle difference with "Input preference" vs just relying
on the lowest input number winning. Say you have your "antenna"
input first (probably not right now because you added it last)
and there is a high priority show at 7 and a lower priority show
at 7 and 10 on a channel that is available on both sources. If the
input preference is the same, the high priority show will record at
7 on "antenna" and the lower will record at 7 on the channel from
the other source. If you raise the input preference for the antenna
input, it would record the high priority show at 7 and the lower
priority show at 10 when it can fit it on the preferred input. If
there was another conflict at 10 then it would again use the other
source at 7.
When I installed the PVR-150 it appeared as /dev/video0 so I believe it
is the lowest input number. I had to edit the PVR-250s in mythtv-setup
since they are now /dev/video1 and /dev/video2.
Great example. Regarding the scenario where the same show is airing at
7:00 and 10:00 on a channel available to both sources - how far into the
future would myth look to make sure a show gets recorded on the
preferred input? How aggressively does myth do this? For example, you
wrote that the show wouldn't be recorded until 10:00 so that the
preferred input could be used. Would myth look forward as far as a week
to find a slot when the show could be recorded on the preferred input?
If that's the case I would rather just have it record on the other
source so I could have it available sooner.
So, you could redo your cards and inputs so that "antenna" is first
but if the signal is actually better, I'd suggest leaving your card
setup as is and just setting the input preference to "1" so that it
will always try to get the clearest recordings for you. Way too much
info is at: http://www.mythtv.org/docs/mythtv-HOWTO-11.html#ss11.7
Since the PVR-150 is already the lowest input number perhaps I don't
need to define an input preference. I'll have to do some testing.
Bruce, thanks a million for your detailed response. This is very
helpful information. Shuffling off now to read the howto....
--Dylan
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